G.K. Chesterton and Father Brown by Terrie Farley Moran Terrie Farley Moran The first Father Brown short mystery, “ The Blue Cross ,” written by G. K. Chesterton, was published in 1910. The amateur sleuth was so popular that Chesterton wrote more than four dozen additional stories featuring the humble priest. With Sherlock Holmes standing as the widely acknowledged master of crime solving through logic and deduction, Father Brown chose a different path, relying on intuition and his fervent comprehension of the human heart. In “The Queer Feet,” one of the early stories, Chesterton refers to Father Brown as “a mild hard-working little priest.” And that is the image he continues to project. He often appears somewhat distracted and a little unfocused. He seems to prefer being in the background and going unnoticed, almost begging to be dismissed as irrelevant. He credits his unfailing ability to see through the worst behavior of the criminal mind to his many years in the confessional granting absolution for every imaginable sin, and confounds the criminals who cross his path by use of his unerring sense of human frailties.

Witness his conversation in this video from the 1954 movie, Meet Father Brown, released in the United States as The Detective. And yes, that is Alec Guinness playing the role of the good Father. As P. D. James wrote in her Introduction to Father Brown, the Essential Tales, “We read the Father Brown stories for a variety pleasures, including their ingenuity, their wit and intelligence, and for the brilliance of the writing. But they provide more. Chesterton was concerned with the greatest of all problems, the vagaries of the human heart.” And Chesterton’s legion of fans keep him in their hearts through organizations like the American Chesterton Society . Infrequently, critics have opined that the Father Brown stories written in the later years lose their kick and become routine. I’ve never found that to be true. Clearly Chesterton does imbue his more serious philosophical opinions in his stories, such as this line from the next to last paragraph “The Oracle of the Dog” written in 1926.

Says Brown, “It’s the first effect of not believing in God that you lose your common sense and can’t see things as they are.” Yes, it’s heavy going, but the reader takes the religious conversations in stride. Father Brown is, after all, a priest and he has just solved what is arguably an outdoor, locked-room murder. He debunked a supernatural explanation that others were ready to accept. I’m happy to have him tell us what really happened in any terms he sees fit. And Father Brown does seem to have a profound religious effect on those who associate with him. Chesterton converted to Roman Catholicism in 1922 and much of his later non-fiction reflected his beliefs. More dramatically, Alec Guinness was so taken with how people responded to him when he was wearing the frock required for his priestly role that he began stopping in Catholic chapels for prayers, particularly when a family illness caused much distress. He and his entire family subsequently converted to the Roman Catholic faith. In addition to the religious sentiments, the Father Brown stories also have an old-fashioned feel when it comes to language and style of writing which are enjoyable and comforting.

(And, not incidentally, remind us not to take offense at the ethnic references which are appropriate to the time in which the stories were written.) So, tell me, have you ever read G. K. Chesterton’s stories about the pleasantly doddering Father Brown? And in the present mystery climate of blood, gore, and hi-tech, would you recommend him to a friend? Terrie blogs at . One of her recent short stories can be found in the anthology Crimes By Moonlight and another can be read on the Beat To A Pulp website. The Great Detectives: G.K. Chesterton - Father Brown - Strand Mag The Great Detectives: G.K.

Chesterton – Father Brown by John Peterson “My first case was just a small private affair about a man’s head being cut off.” Father Brown in “The Mask of Midas” It may surprise some of today’s readers of detective fiction to learn that Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874-1936) was considered by his peers in the mystery-writers’ fraternity to have been the father of the cozy murder mystery or whodunit, the kind of detective story that held sway unchallenged through the twenties and thirties-the golden age of Hercule Poirot, Lord Peter Wimsey, Philo Vance, and Ellery Queen. The spirit (or specter) of Chesterton dominated the genre and its writers until the American pulp magazines broke the mold with their urban mean streets and gun-toting, tough guy private-eyes. If we look back to the state of detective fiction in the first decade of this century, the figure of Sherlock Holmes dominated the landscape as no figure has before or since. As previously noted in the pages of this magazine, in the early 1900’s every magazine had to have its own version of Holmes.

And the task of equaling or surpassing Holmes was thought to entail creating a more relentlessly logical or more keenly observant or more wildly eccentric crime-solver who solved ever more baffling puzzles and uncovered ever more convoluted conspiracies. Note the improbable enigmas unraveled by Jacques Futrelle’s Thinking Machine, Professor Van Dusen (who in his first chess game defeated the world champion); Baroness Orczy’s contemptuous Man in the Corner (who solved the most baffling crimes merely by reading his newspaper in a restaurant); and M. P. Shiel’s reclusive Russian exile, Prince Zaleski (who solved the unsolvable through mystical intuition while reclining on cushions and smoking his hookah). The very excellence of the Holmes stories had repeatedly led detective fiction and its practitioners around a cul-de-sac. It was Chesterton who came to the rescue. Today’s readers know G. K. Chesterton as the author of the Father Brown mystery stories. In his own day, however, Chesterton was thought of primarily as a popular controversialist whose books and journalism covered religion, economics, history, travel, social justice, literary criticism, and much more.

Chesterton was also the first respected literary critic to write extensively on the subject of the detective story. He read these stories himself, literally by the hundreds-stuffing his pockets with them as he waited by a bookstall for the next train. He would typically miss his train and then wander off absentmindedly without paying for the books. It didn’t matter. The savvy bookseller would just send Mrs. Chesterton the bill. Chesterton did not claim the literary superiority of mystery stories over the “tea-table novels” that intellectuals of the time took so seriously. However, he did claim that detective stories presented a more accurate portrayal of life, packed as they were with dangers and surprises. He saw detective stories as a series of contests between individual free wills, unlike the conflicts between impersonal forces found in the modern novels (with their emphasis on psychological urges and social pressures). Their outcomes seemed so inevitable, whereas with murder mysteries, readers were kept in the dark about which of the characters had done the grisly deed, and why. As Father Brown explained in “The Man with Two Beards” (1925), “Our general experience is that every conceivable sort of man has been a saint.

And I suspect you will find, too, that every conceivable sort of man has been a murderer.” Chesterton was a great admirer of Holmes and wrote, in 1922, that “there have never been better detective stories, and I do not think that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle has ever been thanked enough for them.” But he was unhappy with Conan Doyle’s imitators. He thundered against unlikely endings that introduced at the last minute the twin brother from America, or the secret society of Tibetan assassins, or the freshly-invented poison that leaves no trace, or the “proof” that a seemingly insignificant character was actually the arch villain. He deplored the emphasis on the mechanics of crime and detection, which he found sterile and dispiriting, preferring instead to write about the human aspects of crime-motives, emotions, choices, innocence, and guilt. He said that when, in the typical puzzler, a curate is quickly cleared of suspicion because he had been barred from the scene by a high fence, we will probably learn on the last page that he had once been a pole-vaulting champion.

“It always makes me feel,” he wrote, “that the last page is the worst, when the last page should be the best of all.” The only thrill, even of a common thriller, is concerned somehow with the conscience and the will; it involves finding out that men are worse or better than they seem, and that by their own choice. Chesterton insisted that the reader ultimately wanted enlightenment, not mystification, and that at the heart of every complicated detective yarn must lie the discovery of a simple truth-a discovery your nephew might yell from the window, such as: “The Archdeacon is Bloody Bill!” He argued that detective story readers wanted to be fooled, but fooled fairly. He favored the homey or domestic murder with the scope of the investigation narrowed to a brief time and a confined place, a limited number of suspects, and clues which are revealed to both the reader and the detective. His own first attempt at writing mysteries came in 1904 when he published a series of magazine stories that turned the Sherlock Holmes idea on its head. The hero of these stories is Basil Grant, a retired judge whose brother Rupert is a Holmes-struck private detective who investigates crimes and chases villains.

Basil inevitably solves Rupert’s cases by proving the villains are innocent, since no crimes have actually been committed. They were funny stories (still in print in the collection called The Club of Queer Trades), but there was nothing new in spoofing Sherlock Holmes. What was new was Judge Grant’s approach. Using the moral wisdom he had gained from his years on the bench, he succeeded by ignoring the facts (“Facts point in all directions, it seems to me,” he said.) in favor of what he called “the atmospheres.” It was the seed of an idea that would later blossom into Father Brown. The inspiration for making his detective a priest came out of Chesterton’s friendship with Father John O’Connor, the Roman Catholic pastor of St. Cuthbert’s in Bradford. It is a tale often repeated, which we have on Chesterton’s authority (as recorded in his Autobiography), later confirmed by O’Connor in his own memoirs. The two had spent some hours walking on Ilkley Moor, discussing this and that. The priest disagreed with some of Chesterton’s kindly views on begging and beggars, and felt obliged to inform his friend about some of the less savory practices of professional beggars. Chesterton was profoundly shocked.

Not then a Roman Catholic himself, Chesterton had assumed that priests would be less informed about such “glimpses of hell” than a Fleet Street journalist or well-read man of letters. But as Father Brown would remark in the first of the stories (“The Blue Cross,” 1910), “a man who does next to nothing but hear men’s real sins is not likely to be wholly unaware of human evil.” Shortly after their walk, Chesterton and O’Connor sat with two Cambridge undergraduates who chatted with them about art and music. When the priest left the room, the two young men remarked, with worldly condescension, on the cloistered innocence of priests. Chesterton’s reaction bears repeating: To me, still almost shivering with the appallingly practical facts of which the priest had warned me, this comment came with such a colossal and crushing irony, that I nearly burst into a loud harsh laugh in the drawing room. For I knew perfectly well that, as regards all the solid Satanism which the priest knew and warred against with all his life, these two Cambridge gentlemen (luckily for them) knew about as much of real evil as two babies in the same perambulator.

Father Brown, the unassuming little popish priest who understood evil, was born out of that conversation. When asked in “The Hammer of God” (1910) how he had come to this understanding of the dark side of life if he were not himself a devil, Father Brown replied simply, “I am a man, and therefore have all devils in my heart.” The first twelve Father Brown stories appeared in America in The Saturday Evening Post, beginning in July, 1910. They were also published in England in Storyteller, beginning in September, 1910 and in Cassell’s, beginning in February, 1911. These stories were collected and published as The Innocence of Father Brown, which Ellery Queen called “the Miracle Book of 1911.” Chesterton the literary critic had succeeded in putting his ideas into practice. His stories established the conventions of the cozy whodunit.

The murder is usually committed out of greed, jealousy, pride, hatred, or fear by a friend or family member of the victim; the deed is done in the comfort of an exclusive restaurant or the courtyard of a Gothic church, rather than in a den of thieves or amidst a gang of thugs; the resolution is usually surprising, unless deduced by the astute reader from clues and hints the author has sprinkled throughout the story; and, most importantly, the detective’s success in solving the case rests not on his ability to identify the telltale cigar ash or interpret peculiar footprints, but on his ability to understand human motives. As Father Brown says in “The Secret of Flambeau” (1927), “When I tried to imagine the state of mind in which such a thing would be done, I realized that I might have done it myself under certain mental conditions. And then, of course, I knew who really had done it.” Father Brown’s appearance is as commonplace and conventional as possible. He is described as a short little man with a moon face and blinking, owlish eyes, who wears a black cassock and a clerical shovel hat, and carries a large, shabby black umbrella.

He is a companionable man, engaging and witty in conversation, and-most importantly-an attentive and sympathetic listener. When, for example in “The Blast of the Book”(1933), a certain Professor Openshaw meets Father Brown at a restaurant, he is surprised to find the priest engaged in an earnest discussion with the waiter, “apparently about the waiter’s most private affairs.” When Openshaw asks how the priest had come to know the man, it turns out that Father Brown dined there “every two or three months”, so talked with him “now and then.” The professor, who dined there five times a week, had never thought of the waiter at all. The incident hints at Father Brown’s skills as an amateur sleuth. Of course he was a keen observer and sound logician, but the real secret of his success was his practical knowledge of human nature and his ability to apply that knowledge to the problem at hand. “I can always grasp moral evidence easier than the other sorts,” he explained to a friend in “The Duel of Dr. Hirsch” (1914).

“I go by a man’s eyes and voice, and whether his family seems happy, and by what subjects he chooses-and avoids.” Readers familiar with the stories will recall the case of the perpetually cheerful man who shocked everyone, except Father Brown, by committing suicide (“The Three Tools of Death,” 1911). Father Brown admitted the man had been uncommonly cheery but asked if this cheerfulness was the kind that was communicated to others. “Was anyone else in his house cheerful but he?” the priest asked, thus opening a new avenue of inquiry in the mind of the young police investigator. In a similar way in “The Actor and the Alibi” (1926), Father Brown saw through the pose of a beautiful actress who was worshipped and admired by everyone around her except, as he was quick to note, her personal maid. “If you want to know what a lady is really like,” he said, “don’t look at her-look at some other woman who is always near to her, and especially one who is under her.

You will see in that mirror her real face.” Father Brown’s moral reasoning plays a part in every one of his stories, but his greatest success was his triumph over Flambeau, the notorious international jewel thief. Flambeau figured in most of Father Brown’s early adventures, first as an adversary and then as a penitent thief turned private investigator. He brought Father Brown into his most perplexing cases (Flambeau was no fool), which provided a springboard for a number of the stories. But exactly how did the priest manage to reform this die-hard criminal? Flambeau himself answers this question in “The Secret of Flambeau” (1927) after an overbearing American tourist belittles Father Brown’s methods. “Frankly, I don’t think it’s practical,” the man states. “Its practical effect would be that no criminal would ever reform.” Outraged, Flambeau says: “I stole for twenty years with these two hands; I fled from the police on these two feet. I hope you will admit that my activities were practical. Have I not been asked how it was possible for anyone to fall so low, told that no decent person could ever have dreamed of such depravity?

Do you think all that did anything but make me laugh? Only my friend told me that he knew exactly why I stole; and I have n Father Brown (TV Series 2013– ) - IMDb IMDb There was an error trying to load your rating for this title. Some parts of this page won't work property. Please reload or try later. X Beta I'm Watching This! Keep track of everything you watch; tell your friends. Error Series inspired by the stories of GK Chesterton; a Catholic priest has a knack for solving mysteries in his English village. Creators: Bunty Lady Felicia's niece is suspected of murder while being looked after by Father Brown. 9.0 On the day that Father Brown is visiting Gloucester University to see his old friend Professor Hilary Ambrose, a man suffering from memory loss, a medal from the university's trophy cabinet is stolen... 8.8 Father Brown attends an exhibition of Agnes Lesser's dioramas of murder scenes, which have helped the police solve crimes. She is also seeking his, and other guest's, help to ascertain how exactly ...

8.7 a list of 25 titles created 18 May 2014 a list of 47 titles created 24 Sep 2015 a list of 30 titles created 11 months ago a list of 58 titles created 8 months ago a list of 36 titles created 6 months ago Search for " Father Brown " on Amazon.com Connect with IMDb Want to share IMDb's rating on your own site? Use the HTML below. You must be a registered user to use the IMDb rating plugin. A Cambridgeshire clergyman finds himself investigating a series of mysterious wrongdoings in his small village of Grantchester. Stars: James Norton, Robson Green, Morven Christie Death in Paradise (TV Series 2011) Crime | Drama | Mystery A British inspector is transferred to Saint-Marie's police department, but he hates the sun, sea, and sand. The series follow his investigations into murders on the island. Later series see another British DI head the investigative team.

Stars: Danny John-Jules, Elizabeth Bourgine, Sara Martins Midsomer Murders (TV Series 1997) Crime | Drama | Mystery A veteran DCI and his young sergeant investigate murders around the regional community of Midsomer County. Stars: John Nettles, Jane Wymark, Barry Jackson Set in the 1960s, the show follows Endeavour Morse in his early years as a police constable. Working alongside his senior partner DI Fred Thursday, Morse engages in a number of investigations around Oxford. Stars: Shaun Evans, Roger Allam, James Bradshaw Inspector Robert Lewis and Sergeant James Hathaway solve the tough cases that the learned inhabitants of Oxford throw at them. Stars: Kevin Whately, Laurence Fox, Clare Holman With her caustic wit and singular charm, DCI Vera Stanhope and her trusted right-hand man DS Joe Ashworth face a series of captivating murder mysteries set against the breathtaking Northumberland landscape. Stars: Brenda Blethyn, Jon Morrison, David Leon Agatha Christie's Marple (TV Series 2004) Crime | Drama | Mystery An elderly spinster living in the village of St Mary Mead helps her friends and relatives solve mysterious murders.

Stars: Geraldine McEwan, Julia McKenzie, Stephen Churchett Our female sleuth sashays through the back lanes and jazz clubs of late 1920s Melbourne, fighting injustice with her pearl-handled pistol and her dagger-sharp wit. Stars: Essie Davis, Nathan Page, Hugo Johnstone-Burt Set amongst the stunning gardens of Europe, Rosemary Boxer and Laura Thyme, two professional gardeners, find themselves drawn into solving mysterious crimes. Stars: Felicity Kendal, Pam Ferris, Ryan Philpott Inspector George Gently (TV Series 2007) Crime | Drama | Mystery With the help of DS John Bacchus, Inspector George Gently spends his days bringing to justice members of the criminal underworld who are unfortunate enough to have the intrepid investigator assigned to their cases. Stars: Martin Shaw, Lee Ingleby, Simon Hubbard Inspector Morse has an ear for music, a taste for beer and a nose for crime. He sets out with Sergeant Lewis to solve each intriguing case.

Stars: John Thaw, Kevin Whately, James Grout New Tricks (TV Series 2003) Comedy | Crime | Drama Three retired police officers are drafted in to solve cold cases, with a touch of comedy and drama Stars: Dennis Waterman, Amanda Redman, Alun Armstrong Edit Storyline Series inspired by the stories of GK Chesterton; a Catholic priest has a knack for solving mysteries in his English village. 14 January 2013 (UK) See more » Also Known As: Did You Know? Trivia Mark Williams declined to return for the 20th anniversary special of "The Fast Show" due to commitments to this series. See more » Connections (United Kingdom) – See all my reviews I really enjoyed watching this BBC adaptation of GK Chestertons, Father Brown stories. It was really perfect viewing for a winters afternoon. Having read all the stories I realise that some people will not be happy with the way this adaptation has been made. In particular Mark Williams as Father Brown was far from the physical image Chesterton created in the stories. I for one don't think this matters as Williams gives an excellent performance in my opinion. The setting is perfect postcard England.

There is a few plot holes in the episodes if you compare them to the stories, but I hope this series will attract more people to read the stories. As a lover of the English crime drama I for one hope that they make another series, there is still plenty of stories to adapt after all. 19 of 24 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes The Complete Father Brown Stories: Amazon.co.uk: G.K. Chesterton, David Stuart Davies: 9781853260032: Books The Complete Father Brown Stories Add all three to Basket Buy the selected items together This item:The Complete Father Brown Stories by G.K. Chesterton Paperback Â£1.99 In stock. Sent from and sold by Amazon. FREE Delivery on orders over Â£10. Details The Complete Richard Hannay Stories (Wordsworth Classics) by John Buchan Paperback Â£1.99 In stock. Sent from and sold by Amazon. FREE Delivery on orders over Â£10. Details The Lady Vanishes & The Spiral Staircase (Wordsworth Classics) by Ethel Lina White Paperback Â£1.99 In stock. Sent from and sold by Amazon.

FREE Delivery on orders over Â£10. Details Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought Page 1 of 1 Start over Page 1 of 1 This shopping feature will continue to load items. In order to navigate out of this carousel please use your heading shortcut key to navigate to the next or previous heading. Enter your mobile number or email address below and we'll send you a link to download the free Kindle App. Then you can start reading Kindle books on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required. Apple To get the free app, enter your mobile phone number. or Don't have a Kindle? Get your Kindle here , or download a FREE Kindle Reading App . Product details Publisher: Wordsworth Editions; Revised & enlarged edition (2006) Language: English Product Dimensions: 12.7 x 4.3 x 19.6 cm Average Customer Review: Product Description Book Description The official tie-in edition to the BBC drama series Father Brown, starring Mark Williams --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. About the Author G.K.

Chesterton was born in 1874, and educated at St Pauls School, where, despite his efforts to achieve honourable oblivion at the bottom of his class, he was singled out as a boy with distinct literary promise. He decided to follow art as a career, and studied at the Slade School, where, while attending or not attending to his studies, he met Ernest Hodder-Williams, who encouraged Chesterton in his writing. At his request he reviewed a number of books for the Bookman and found himself launched on a profession he was to follow all his life. Probably his most famous stories are those of Father Brown, but he wrote much about every conceivable subject under or beyond the sun. The best accounts of his life are to be found in his own Autobiography, published soon after his death in 1936, and in Miss Maisie Wards Life of him. What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item? By B. Alcat on 20 Sept. 2005 Format: Paperback This book compiles some short detective stories, with an unlikely protagonist, a priest.

Father Brown is a rather quiet main character, unpretentious but remarkably assured. He uses logic in order to solve his cases, and he makes abundant use of good judgment and sound sense. Father Brown has an unique "worldly shrewdness", that probably stems from the fact that he spends many hours each day listening to the sins of other people. As a result, he is more or less acquainted with the bad side of human beings. Father Brown is considered by many "the second most famous mystery-solver in English literature", the first being Sherlock Holmes. To tell the truth, I prefer Father Brown to Sherlock Holmes: he might not be as showy as Conan Doyle's character, but he is far more likeable, and his stories seem more likely to be real. Moreover, Chesterton's Father Brown doesn't just chase criminals, he allows the reader to learn about some interesting themes that were important when these stories were first published, but that also are important now, for example the relationship between faith and reason. He manages to that because he doesn't merely want to "catch the criminal", he also endeavors to understand human nature, and the reasons why a criminal becomes one.

The author of these mystery stories was Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874-1936), a renowned English writer who wrote them between 1911 and 1936. His stories are as popular now as they were then, mainly to to the fact that Chesterton's style is compelling and refreshing, eminently readable and witty. Thus, these stories appeal not only to those who want to read a good book written in an exceptionally good english, but also to those who want to do exactly that without having to exhert themselves. On the whole, I think this collection of short stories is worth buying and reading, not only once but many times. I highly enjoyed it, and I strongly recommend it to you :) Belen Alcat Father Brown mysteries on BBC Father Brown mysteries on BBC March 13, 2013 by Gene Veith 17 Comments G. K. Chesterton’s Father Brown mysteries, about a mild-mannered priest who solves crimes because he understands man’s sinful nature, is being televised on BBC. It’s been so popular that it has been renewed for a second season.

Unfortunately, the series isn’t being shown here, not even on BBC America, and it isn’t available on Netflix. Someday, we can hope, since BBC typically does a terrific job with material like that. (Have you seen the BBC adaption of the Kurt Wallander mysteries by Henning Mankell, starring Kenneth Branagh?) If anyone has seen the Father Brown stories, let us know how they are. I know we have readers from across the pond. (Details about the series after the jump.) From Mathew Block: The BBC recently produced a new television series of Father Brown stories starring Mark Williams (“Arthur Weasley” of Harry Potter fame) in the title role. The series was initially designed as a ten-episode arc, with one episode airing every day (weekends excluded) from January 17 to January 25. It began with “The Hammer of God” and ended with “The Blue Cross.” Of course, there are some difficulties in transitioning Chesterton’s famous priest-detective from the page to the small screen.

As Michael Newton noted a day after the series began, Chesterton’s protagonist is so humble a character, so unconcerned about his own self, that it’s hard to make a show that focuses directly on him: Father Brown is comically unobtrusive. Indeed it seems that Chesterton was at first occupied with making a joke in which he wrote detective stories where the aim was to puzzle out who the real detective is. Often Brown makes his first appearance as an aside or as one item in a list, edging sideways into the story. His most conspicuous feature is his inconspicuousness. Neither film nor TV is a medium built for the celebration of humility. So we are to understand that the new series has had to make certain changes in order to “work” for television. Father Brown makes a more direct transition to the centre of the stories. Moreover, the tales are reconfigured to take place in one small English village in the 1950′s. As a result, the great French detective Valentine (Chesterton’s initial foil) becomes an English detective, rather than a world-renowned investigator. But then, such changes are to be expected: all translation is by necessity interpretation and re-creation.

We know that the show was well-received in England; more than 2 million people tuned in for each episode, and so the show has been commissioned for a second series. But has the new translation to television done justice to Chesterton’s original? Well, that’s something we in the United States and Canada will just have to wait to discuss until the show makes an appearance in North America. The question as to what religious impact the show might have on the English audience also remains to be seen. After all, the stories of Father Brown are about a Catholic priest. More than that, they are about a respectable, intelligent Catholic priest. In a country where only 59.3 percent of the population still self-identifies as Christian (2011 statistics, down from 71.8 percent in 2001, and increasing numbers are declaring themselves atheists, the presence of a strong Christian character on popular television is certainly significant. After all, as starring actor (and self-described “pantheistic humanist”) Mark Williams himself explains, Father Brown is not simply another television detective: [Father Brown] has a huge appetite for the detail of life and for humanity, and he cares very much about people’s souls.

That’s the most interesting thing about him as a sleuth: it’s not him solving a conundrum or a crossword, he’s dealing with what he sees as people’s eternal damnation. And when he works it out, the sky turns black and is full of harpies; he’s desperately committed to his morality. I have to say, I’m looking forward to seeing BBC’s new small-screen take on redemptive mystery. The mother of all lock-ins » About Gene Veith I am a retired English professor and college administrator. I have written over 20 books on different facets of Christianity & Culture. Tom Hering A 13-episode U.K. production (1974) was shown on PBS Mystery!, and is available on DVD. Cincinnatus BBC productions are either amazing (cf. the most recent adaptation of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s tales, Sherlock) or insufferably boring, apparently written for stereotypical white English senior citizens (cf. Doc Martin). Hanni Tom Hering, I ha no idea! I am pretty good at hunting these great British TV shows down, but totally missed the 1974 series, didnt even know PBS Mystery was running then.

Thanks and to GV Cincinnatus My point being, given the subject matter (Chesterton’s stories are a little bit “cute”), that this could go either way. Lars Walker One of my Facebook acquaintances (I forget who) has seen it and did not like it at all. Said it was not only updated in date, but in opinions. Father Brown is now a modernist Anglican. Tom Hering Hanni @ 3, I think it was first shown on Mystery! in the 1980s. As for British productions about Catholic detectives, I’m liking Cadfael, which I’ve just recently started watching on DVD. When I’m not watching Doc Martin, of course 😀 . Klasie Kraalogies I’m really looking forward to this – when it eventually comes here. Maybe on PBS / Knowledge (BC’s version of PBS). Doc Martin was ok – I liked Cadfael, and am a devoted fan of Sherlock!, Inspector Morse, Lewis, Miss Marple, Poirot… you get the drift. Tom Hering George Gently. Klasie Kraalogies Tom @ 8 – I have only seen bits of it, but it I did like what I saw.

Oh, and lets not forget New Tricks. Klasie Kraalogies It would seem that we are discussing British Crime drama. Because there is this other British/Welsh show, that has a new season starting up in 17 days, that I could mention… Tom Hering Who is it about? And will the stories ever make any sense? Steve Billingsley Foyle’s War was quite good as well. SKPeterson Tom – The Brother Cadfael mysteries are fantastic. I enjoyed them very much and read the novels as a result. They are also quite good and very quick reads. I wish BBC would pick up where HBO failed and do a credible version of the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series. helen Where can I get Cadfael on DVD, please? (I’ve got all of the volumes in paperback) David M My wife and I have really enjoyed Pie in the Sky. It’s another British crime/comedy (a cromedy?) about a detective who is semi-retired and tries to run his own restaurant while the police force keeps calling him back to solve politically sensitive cases. How is Wallander? We’ve seen previews, but it looks a bit dark. Anybody’s thoughts?

Lars Walker All Scandinavian mysteries are dark and depressing. I don’t know of any exceptions to this. And I speak as an ethnic Scandinavian. Josh Radke Here is an overview from a very good British friend of mine whom I often go to when I need an opinion on British TV: “Mark Williams is certainly no Kenneth More. Mark Williams is best known here for light roles and I can’t honestly say that I’ve seen him in a “serious” part, whereas Kenneth More had perhaps a wider general acting range. If I were forced to choose, I would say that if you want a “traditional” Fr. Brown, you’d be better watching More. If you want 50 minutes of feelgood detective drama with a moral dimension, then check out the new version. In the new version, Fr. Brown’s housekeeper, (played wonderfully by Sorcha Cusack of the great Irish acting dynasty), often shows a “holier-than-thou” judgemental attitude to people and situations and Fr. Brown usually has to gently remind her that only God can judge and that He will always be the first to forgive someone who truly repents. [So it’s] Father Brown – but NOT as perhaps you know him.

The comedy side is well served whilst although the setting is in a predominantly Catholic village, (itself a fairly unlikely occurrence in this country), the religious element is perhaps underplayed. It should be remembered that this show actually aired as afternoon drama here in England rather than prime-time. As a result, it perhaps appeals to a different audience than many other detective shows. Having said that, the updating to the 1950’s certainly works. Also, the inclusion of post WWII Polish refugees into most episodes is a reminder that the current influx of Poles as economic migrants that we have here is not the first time we have had immigrants from Eastern Europe. Above all, remember that this is entertainment and not evangelising. Overall, I enjoyed it.” Sign up for free newsletters and special offers Get the Best of Patheos Newsletter Get the Evangelical Newsletter Father Brown – new BBC series with Mark Williams | Past Offences: Classic crime, thrillers and mystery book reviews Past Offences: Classic crime, thrillers and mystery book reviews As a long-time fan of the Father Brown stories by G. K. Chesterton, I have been eagerly anticipating the BBC’s adaptation. I’ve set up this page as an index of the show’s appearances on the Web.

Episodes The Blue Cross , Friday 25 January, 2.15-3.05pm The making of the show The Radio Times previews the series with a brief interview with the new Father Brown, Mark Williams: ‘He has a huge appetite for the detail of life and for humanity, and he cares very much about people’s souls. That’s the most interesting thing about him as a sleuth: it’s not him solving a conundrum or a crossword, he’s dealing with what he sees as people’s eternal damnation. And when he works it out, the sky turns black and is full of harpies; he’s desperately committed to his morality.’ Back in October I interviewed the BBC’s Producer Ceri Meyrick (@cerimeyrick) about the making of Father Brown. The stories are set all over the world and in lots of different times – GK wrote them over a period of several decades, of course, but he died in 1936, so moving them to the 50s was a big change. We were advised that period shows work better if they are set within living memory, so that’s why we updated it.

We wanted the TV show to be anchored in a time and a place – unlike the stories. My feeling was that the stories had a timeless feel to them anyway. The show’s writer, Rachel Flowerday (@buskeroo), wrote for The Writer’s Guild about the creative process: We spent a chilly December day driving around the Cotswolds, where we’d settled on setting Father Brown: the original stories have no precinct, with Father Brown popping up in Paris, on a boat, in a country house – great fun, but way too costly for daytime telly. We saw amazing houses, met a Reverend and toured the vicarage that became Father Brown’s presbytery, and over a pie-and-mash lunch in a local pub, locked down the gang of characters, era and Gloucestershire village setting of our interpretation of Father Brown. ‘I’ve been a character actor for 25 years and nobody’s ever cast me for my sexual attraction… So it’s not something I worry about’ – Mark Williams interviewed in the Radio Times.

Rachel also blogs with another writer , Tahsin Guner about working together: First, as is apt, a confession: before working on Father Brown, I’d never read a single word of GK Chesterton. Or written a murder-mystery. Or a period piece. Or developed a new TV series. I’d written numerous episodes of Holby City, as well as Casualty, Eastenders, and Doctors, but this was new territory. I was well outside my comfort zone – but I think that’s a good place for a writer to be. If you’re interested in the soundtrack, the show’s composer Debbie Wiseman (@wisemandebbie) can be heard on BBC Radio 4 talking about her approach. And finally, the scripts for The Hammer of God and The Flying Stars are available from the BBC Writer’s Room. Reviews Mark Lawson in the Guardian draws a parallel between Father Brown and Blandings, also launching this week on the BBC. Although showing on consecutive days and not billed as part of a themed sequence, BBC1 next week launches two new shows offering a broadcasting equivalent of what art curators like to call a “conversation” between pictures hanging on opposite walls.

Apparently both are attempts to revive a style of drama that has fallen out of fashion – ‘warm, innocent, literary translation’. Meanwhile, Robin Jarossi at Crime Time Preview was less than impressed: Working out who the culprit is should not have viewers straining their analytical faculties to breaking point, despite the killing itself being a tad implausible. The formula is simple – whoever looks shifty is not the killer; the person who is not shifty is the killer. Past Offences by Rich Westwood is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License . Put the word out... Father Brown: the empathetic detective | Books | The Guardian Rereading Father Brown: the empathetic detective Sherlock Holmes might be sexier, but GK Chesterton's atmospheric Father Brown stories are the best the genre has ever seen An uncanny figure: Mark Williams as Father Brown in the new BBC1 series.

Photograph: Des Willie/BBC Friday 18 January 2013 15.00 EST First published on Friday 18 January 2013 15.00 EST Share on Messenger Close If there is debate about who is the greatest literary detective, there can be no dispute as to who is the most recognisable. An IMDb search for adaptations of GK Chesterton 's Father Brown stories yields one 1950s film, two television series (one of which has just started on BBC1), a clutch of American Masterpiece Mystery shows, and an American TV movie. A similar hunt for Arthur Conan Doyle 's Sherlock Holmes turns up an immediate 200 hits, with many more following: there's Young Sherlock, Robert Downey Jr , Benedict Cumberbatch , Jeremy Brett, Basil Rathbone and Billy Wilder , as well as the Baker Street Irregulars, all the spoofs, the debunkings, the modernisations, and so on and on. Even Tom and Jerry have met Holmes. The reasons for Holmes's on-screen triumph over the diminutive cleric are not hard to find.

Holmes has benefited both from the attractiveness of his milieu (that foggy, gas-lit, late Victorian London) and the fact that, as a myth, he transcends it. Holmes can fight Nazis, have an internet addiction, or live in Los Angeles, and remain recognisably Holmes. Father Brown is both more linked to a specific early-20th-century Britain and hampered by the very variety of the tales in which he appeared; there is no one typical Father Brown setting, no single atmosphere to which they belong. The new BBC series has plumped for one world, embedding the stories in a Midsomer-style 1950s English village, that mystical land of Victoria sponge and murder guaranteed to bring succour to the heart of the afternoon TV viewer. And to my heart, too, I should confess, although nostalgia is one element absent from Chesterton's stories themselves, even if consolation is their central purpose. Besides, where Sherlock Holmes is the Bohemian Übermensch who dominates every tale, and (other than the Boswell-like Watson) often the only character any reader of the stories remembers, Father Brown is comically unobtrusive.

Indeed it seems that Chesterton was at first occupied with making a joke in which he wrote detective stories where the aim was to puzzle out who the real detective is. Often Brown makes his first appearance in an aside or as one item in a list, edging sideways into the story. His most conspicuous feature is his inconspicuousness. Neither film nor TV is a medium built for the celebration of humility. Its great actors like, naturally enough, to be at the centre, for film favours the show-off, the celebrity. To base a show on a man who quietly observes others is a challenge the new BBC series perhaps rightly does not attempt to solve. The 1974 ATV series with Kenneth More as Father Brown was happier with this aesthetic of displacement, and the hero's entrance was sometimes delayed for more than a third of a programme's length. It's good stuff, but still More could not help but exude a saloon-bar chumminess, an unshowy, no-nonsense bonhomie. As a result he can appear uncomfortable just looking on, resisting his default setting of appearing charmingly pleased with himself.

Yet, in Robert Hamer's 1954 film , Alec Guinness was perfect casting, a master of self-effacement playing another, the kind of actor who could dominate a film while somehow simultaneously vanishing from it. Where Holmes is dashing, hawk-like, and a boxer and swordsman as much as an amateur chemist and logician, Brown is dowdy, baby-faced, plump, a parish priest and an "Essex turnip". Holmes is not just a great detective, he has a great profile. His methods may be analytical, but his persona is pure theatre, the dressing-gowned matinée idol of rational detection. It's perhaps not surprising that stories about a short, nondescript priest should lack sex-appeal. And on-screen, sex sells: Holmes has become sexier and sexier; for the current BBC series of Father Brown, Mark Williams is a good character actor, but one perhaps unlikely to set hearts a-flutter.

(Other than The Fast Show , I suppose he's best known for playing Ron Weasley's dad.) If Sherlock Holmes leads directly to Dr Who , then it's true that the only Dr Who we could also easily imagine playing Father Brown is Sylvester McCoy, that series' whimsical nemesis. Holmes disperses mystery, turning the disgust and mayhem of murder into something ultimately comforting; all is in order, so long as Holmes is there to disentangle the strangeness. He is a Tory detective, inscribing with bullet holes the initials of Victoria Regina on the wall of his Baker Street flat. The more radical Father Brown shifts our sense of mystery elsewhere; a crime is solved, but the solution comes in such a way as to unsettle our sense of what we know, or think we know. That the unsettling points to something larger than our first thoughts is these tales' great lesson. The world is weirder than we previously believed, but also much better, richer and stranger. Chesterton remarked that the "detective story differs from every story in this: that the reader is only happy if he feels a fool".

Chesterton's tales, in their different way, offer something of the solace found in Holmes, and in all detective stories, that notion central to the form that the mind fits the world: "'What we all dread most,'" said the priest in a low voice, 'is a maze with no centre.'" John Gross has suggested that more than any other Edwardian writer Chesterton was caught up in escaping the moribund pessimism of 1890s decadence. It is a favourite paradox for critics writing on Chesterton that despite his contempt for the fin de siècle, he was imbued with the spirit of the decade that he professed to hate. In his most purple passages, he writes like Oscar Wilde on steroids; there's sometimes a Pater ian luxuriance in the prose, a specifying gorgeousness. Despite these traces, hemmed in by the decadent jadedness, Chesterton plotted ways to escape. He embraced a view of the world based on an essential excitement that it should exist at all. Chesterton declared that "the aim of life is appreciation", his version of DH Lawrence 's dictum that there is no point living with a bad grace.

It may seem anomalous that the literary form that gave the best opportunity for displaying this enraptured gratitude was the detective story, filled as it is with murder, guilt and corpses. Yet Chesterton was given over to paradox, and his imagination was ideally fitted to a form that turned on the revelation of small surprises. Of course every surprise must also seem a solution. It must persuade us that it fits the facts, and so unmask the mystery that preceded it as having a hitherto undetected coherence. In this, his religion aided him, for it meant in his eyes that the truth was what hardly anyone else believed. Surprise was as intrinsic to Chesterton's thought as it was to his method. Each unexpected twist reveals a world that is both endlessly strange yet undeniably apt. The early Father Brown stories begin with a picture; the early Holmes short stories begin with a debate about the nature of the stories themselves, a consideration of methodology. Every great detective was meant to have his distinguishing quirks, but far more importantly, he was to have his "method".

At times, Brown's "method" can look like a matter of inspiration, not deduction; as such, it would leave the reader looking on admiringly, but seldom able to participate in the story's puzzle-like aspects. For Father Brown does have a method and, late on in the stories, in "The Secret of Father Brown", he reveals it. In an earlier story, Brown makes a distinction between approval and sympathy, a distinction that is the soul of his approach. Empathy, a leap into another's point of view, is his tactic, just as it is also film's ultimate goal. Brown puts himself imaginatively in the minds of the killers, identifying himself with their desires, their way of seeing, their wants, their limitations, their falling for crime. But in doing so, he discovers simultaneously his own capacity for murder; distinct from them, he shares their humanity and, in potential at least, their sin. Like Edgar Allan Poe 's Dupin, Father Brown doubles himself with the killer, but does so in a spirit of humility and charity. The criminal comes close; indeed Brown places himself inside him.

In presenting his approach to crime in this way, Chesterton was giving not so much a method for detection as his creed as a writer. Chesterton was emphatically an artist, and in the Father Brown stories he sought to investigate the foundations of his art. The writer becomes a kind of actor, playing the part of another, and like Brown, he too was "a sort of understudy; always in a state of being ready to act the assassin". Chesterton favoured many writers – Chaucer, Shakespeare, Browning, Dickens – and there is something of a dark version of their abundance in these stories, in the figure of a man who imagines himself inside 100 murderers. And at odd moments, Brown himself can seem an uncanny figure, a goblin, a blunderer making the blackest jokes, a horned and Satanic figure caught in a glance in a distant mirror. Chesterton's conscious aim in writing the Father Brown stories was to subvert the misconception that priests must be unworldly innocents ignorant of the world. Instead it turns out that Brown (like his "real-life model", Father John O'Connor) is shockingly well informed about the most surprising of sins.

Brown's life as a priest brings into the tales enigmas that a detective might not be expected to solve: not just whodunit, but the ultimate mystery of life and death. Chesterton inherited a form naturally given to morbidity and infused it with a reckless joy. He also took over a form preoccupied with facts, and turned it rather in the direction of "atmospheres". In a late story, it is said that Father Brown dislikes the telephone, as he prefers "to watch people's faces, and feel social atmospheres". In The Club of Queer Trades, another of his detectives, Basil Grant, suspects facts, but finds a solution through his awareness of the "atmosphere" of a letter: "how facts obscure the truth … Facts point in all directions, like the thousand twigs on a tree. It's only the life of a tree that has unity and goes up – only the green blood that springs, like a fountain, at the stars." After reading the Father Brown stories, it's their atmospheres that linger, long after the details of the cases themselves are forgotten.

It's the seaside town in winter, the walled garden, the crazily stacked apartment blocks, the occultist's tower, the cursed book, the aesthete's hidden island lost among the fens that remain. As a polemicist, Chesterton was perhaps illogical, but here his belief in a different standard of "proof" – the feel of a thing – comes to marvellous fruition. They are undoubtedly the greatest short detective stories yet written. • Father Brown is on BBC1 on Monday afternoons.

Question: Who wrote the 'Father Brown' crime stories
Answer: G K Chesterton